Other Songs 5 : Chapter And Universes
by Gojirob
Summary: Each small action contains events that could have been. In this series, each manga chapter of Elfen Lied will be explored for could-have beens in drabble format. From hideous to silly, from small to hugely improbable, over 100 doors await opening.
1. Manga Volumes One and Two

Other Songs 5 : Chapter and Universes

1

Knowing what it would cost him in the eyes of Chief Kakuzawa, Kurama called off the sniper.

"Damn you, girl."

Over the side of the cliff they went, the oddest pair in Human history or beyond it.

"Why are you helping me?"

Showing a competence that would have stunned all including herself mere hours ago, her companion spoke at last.

"Ever since I first came here, I saw what they do to you girls. It had me shaking apart. I'd rather die than be a part of it anymore."

So began the strange journey of Lucy and her companion-Kisaragi.

2

Yuka was blunt in her question.

"Will he have to spend another year in the hospital?"

The doctor shook her head.

"Not at all. In fact, we believe his current pain comes from the breakthrough the doctors at the mental clinic always hoped for-the final restoration of Kouta's memories from childhood."

Yuka realized something.

"Yes! Before we left the beach in the ambulance, as I held him, he said through his tears he recalled playing there as children."

"Yuka-San? What happened out there?"

"Well, Doctor, it all started when we found that poor horned girl drowned in the surf..."

3

Satou and Hanabishi approached their CO in the company of three young people.

"Isn't that-"

Satou waved a hand.

"Suggest not getting her upset, Chief. Yeah, that is Lucy. But it seems like head trauma has made her into-"

The girl looked at the CO with a baby's eyes.

"Nyu?"

The CO immediately called Director Kurama to try and reason this one out. The presence of the young man and woman kept Lucy docile, and short of dead, that was ideal.

"And send MP's for Taoku. Though I think he deserves a medal for shooting that asshole Bando."

4

The younger of the masked men tried to urge restraint; the elder wore an arrogant grin through his mask.

"Put it down, boy. Put it down NOW!"

Satou pulled out his automatic.

"He said put it-"

Trembling but unwilling to see Kouta die, Yuka blasted a hole through Satou. When Bando screamed, Kouta used his stolen gun to do the same.

"Kouta, we just-"

"I know. What I don't know is what we do now."

"You're killers like me-you go on the run-I can show you how."

Having no choice, the pair followed the changed Nyu.

5

Bando dodged each thrown item, but it was becoming a close thing.

"How are you doing this?"

The taunting rejoinder came back.

"What does it matter to you? You're going to die."

Bando's rage at hearing this was subsumed by something else.

"It matters because I'd love to have that power myself."

"Really? Well, only your children-should you have any-could have it. And they would use it to kill every last one of the corrupt, smug, lazy lumps you call Humanity."

Bando threw down his weapons, and shocked Lucy by grinning.

"That so? Well, girlie-sign me up."

6

"Having fun yet?"

Before she could fire or react, Bando punched Lucy in the face.

"Nyu?"

Confused, he punched her again.

"You're going to suffer for that-"

Worried, he punched her again.

"Nyu?"

Moving to knock her out, he went again.

"How long do you want your death to take?"

Punch.

"Nyu?"

Punch.

"All right, soldier-boy, this is it..."

Punch.

"Nyu!"

On and on and on it went, till both punched and puncher looked punchy. Bando saw a homeless girl approach them, and thought fast.

"Hey, kid? Am I on odd or even punches right now?"

Mayu ran far.

7

Yuka had walked in on Kouta's attempt to put Nyu into some clothes.

"Yuka, please! I was just trying to-"

"I know what you were trying to do, pervert!"

Nyu shed even the modest clothing Kouta put on her, and was dancing wildly.

"Why don't you join your girlfriend, molester?"

"Why don't you try and under-"

"Excuse me?"

A man in a suit stood in the doorway.

"I have a cease and desist order against this scene."

Yuka shrugged.

"From who?"

Kouta read it.

"From-the residents of the Hinata-Sou?"

Nyu looked at the papers.

"That's just silly."

END VOLUME 1

8

Yuka cried long and hard over the boy who simply didn't remember her at all.

"Kouta, you're such an idiot!"

She stared at the results of the carving games, the ones she had gotten so good at in order to impress the braggart Kouta could become.

"I did this for you-and you can't do me the courtesy of remembering me?"

As she threw the carvings out, Yuka's mother questioned her.

"If Kouta has no use for my memory-then I have none for his games!"

Her mother puzzled.

"Yuka, you played those games with Cousin Ichiro."

Yuka puzzled.

"Who?"

9

Bando took in the information Kurama gave him.

"So they're our replacements? Heh. If I were the man upstairs, I might decide to start over too."

"Now do you understand the need for the operation, Bando-San?"

"Hell, No, Doc! I just don't see the need to chop my balls off."

"You are infected. The children you produce after this will be horned girls like Lucy and turn on you."

"Yeah-but what about a simple vasectomy? Just tie up those rascals."

Kurama's face turned ashen. He made a call.

"D'Oh! Chief Kakuzawa? Perhaps we should change the standard anti-infection procedure..."

10

She was so scared.

There was a man in there, she was sure of it.

Maybe that man was nothing like her stepfather, but again, she was so afraid.

"Suppose he grabs Wanta-Chan as a hostage, and then he makes me..."

The pain shot back like she had walked on a nail, or fallen on broken glass. The pain of memories that it seemed would never go away. On the other side of the door was a man who understood such horrid memories.

In a decision all would regret, Mayu left the umbrella by the doorway and ran off forever.

11

Kouta was excited.

"So there were soldiers?"

Mayu nodded.

"Yes. They were looking for someone."

Yuka felt odd about this.

"Was there anyone else on the beach?"

Mayu looked nervous.

"The man in the red suit."

Kouta could not recall such a soldier.

"Red suit?"

"Yes. There's also the bunny."

Yuka shook her head.

"Bunny? A pet like your dog?"

"No, silly! The man in the red suit is for Christmas, and the Bunny is for Easter. Everyone knows that."

Kouta and Yuka made sure Mayu got the very best of care. Her parents were arrested and sent to prison.

12

"I didn't mean to touch her breast. My crime is showing weakness in not pulling away."

"I can't leave you two alone for even a moment!"

She sniffed.

"Well? Do you want to feel mine or not?"

Kouta considered his answer long and deeply. and came up with an answer.

"No! But not because you're not a pretty girl."

"Then why?"

"I'll show you!"

With that, he called her bluff and squeezed where she had all but dared him to. And then Yuka saw why he would not want to do this as Nyu walked in the door, looking furious.

13

From her hidden remove, Nana waited.

"I can feel you out there."

The waiting was tense.

"You want to talk, fine. I've never harmed a real..."

They were the last words she ever said. The sniper's bullet struck true before Lucy could react. Unseen by the approaching soldiers, a panicked Mayu ran back to Maple House, Wanta at her heels, this time for good, to tell the soon-grieving Kouta and Yuka.

Nana saw Kurama.

"Papa, we did it!"

Kurama seized Nana and ran while the soldiers were away.

"Yes, we did. And now, Nana-chan-we must survive the Chief's wrath."

14

The nice bakery lady shook her head at Mayu.

"Nothing for you today, honey. Someone stole all my pies, and I have to close to restock."

Mayu seemed stunned.

"Your pies always smell so good-but who would steal all of them?"

Having no other choice, Mayu headed for the people at Maple House and hoped they wouldn't ask so many questions this time.

At the nearby cemetery, Lucy was growing ever more furious.

"Stop It!"

She wiped the filling from her face.

"Stop It!"

Again, the assault kept on.

"STOP IT!"

Nana was having the time of her life.

15

Nana had disabled Lucy's nerves. This was not to prove the victory she planned for.

"You're an idiot!"

"Nana's no fool. I beat you, and now Papa will take you back home."

Lucy grinned.

"That place is not my home, any more than its yours."

Nana's silence was Lucy's opening.

"You've probably never hurt anyone. But they still shake around you, right?"

"Not...Papa."

"But he keeps you locked up, right? Do you have a place where you really belong?"

Nana raised Lucy up. She was curious.

"Do you-have that kind of place?"

The two were gone when Kurama arrived.

16

One of the guards overcame his fearful immobility and fired at Lucy. Part of each of her horns was taken off. Kurama saw the result of this.

"Nyu?"

"A childlike state. Probably originating in the head wound she sustained during the escape. She's docile...able to be studied safely."

Whoever Lucy was now, she was chained up and held firmly at gunpoint, though a couple of the guards and nurses found their privates squeezed.

"Should I turn an innocent over to the Chief?"

One year later, Kurama wept as Nyu painfully gave birth to Cain Kakuzawa, future ruler of the Earth.

17

Kurama heard the madman's plan.

Next, he heard the gunshot. No cameras in the soundproofed office meant that Kurama had time to plan. The Kamakura police would receive evidence that Professor Kakuzawa was responsible for several sexual wrongs with his students. But it was not enough.

DAYS LATER...

"Papa sent Nana away with the second pod, and then...Nana heard the island exploding."

Kouta saw Nana again adjust her artificial limbs. She'd barely had any practice time with them.

"But Nana? Who is the boy?"

Nana looked at the boy playing patty-cake with Nyu.

"Nana thinks-he is my little brother."

END VOLUME TWO


	2. Manga Volumes Three and Four

VOLUME THREE

18

Mayu held Wanta close.

"I can't ask you to do this."

"Yuka and I will care for you-and the baby. We're family."

"No, we're-"

"-family."

Kouta left after she fell asleep. Yuka sat at the dinner table.

"She was so brave-when the test came back positive. Mother says she's welcome here-though I think becoming a great-grandmother is too much."

Kouta wanted to scream.

"Where is Nyu?"

Elsewhere, Lucy broke down the door to Mayu's home. She and Nyu looked at the girl's so-called parents through the same enraged eyes.

"Finally-something we can agree on."

19

The rude woman walked off with the dog she called James. Mayu tried to be happy with the thought that her friend would always have food.

The squall came up suddenly. The lady was drenched with rain, struck by lightning, and inundated with fish kicked up from the surf. The fish attracted cats, who swarmed over her in a hunger-driven frenzy. Wanta jumped away from this, and the light wash that hit Mayu cleaned her face up a bit. Finally, the police came, and Mayu pointed before leaving for Maple House.

"That smelly homeless woman tried to steal my dog."

20

Mayu walked with Kouta and Yuka.

"I don't know about this arrangement."

Yuka smiled.

"It'll further your education."

Kouta nodded.

"When the time comes for university exams, you'll be the readiest."

"But shouldn't I be going to middle school, while you go to college with..."

Yuka and Kouta glared at her.

"You are going to university with us!"

"We will NOT discuss this with you again!"

Mayu backed off, and for the record did rather well in Professor Kakuzawa's class.

Elsewhere, other arrangements had been made. The teacher smiled.

"Who's for finger painting?"

One 'child' jumped up.

"NYU! NYU! NYU!"

21

Now that Bando had her by the throat, he swore to not let go.

"What's your damned name?"

"Nyu!"

"Is that a family or a given name?"

"Nyu!"

"Is it both?"

"Nyu!"

"Uhhh-a clan name?"

"Nyu!"

Bando breathed in. He ignored all other distractions.

"Okay-so it's Nyu Nyu Nyu-must be a family of damned hippies. Alright, you. I want my pound of-"

An argument broke out in the college commons.

"That's not how it went at all! Don't you know classic comedy? It starts 'Who's On First..."

As Nyu slipped away, Bando shot both arguing parties.

22

"So what kind of scientists meet us out here in a boondocks safety college?"

Isobe shrugged at Bando's question.

"In many respects, they are the stereotypical mad scientists."

"How stereotypical are we talking?"

Into the office walked a bald man wearing an overcloak, and another man wearing a tuxedo. Both had pale skin. The bald man put his hand against Bando's forehead, and a lightbulb in his own mouth, which lit up.

"Wow! High temperature!"

The tuxedo-wearing old man shook his head.

"Fester, please! You're as bad as Herman!"

"Sorry, Granpa. I'll get the electrodes."

Bando winced.

"Now, THAT's stereotypical."

23

Kurama's assistant was furious at Professor Kakuzawa.

"You're making him an offer to have horned children? Children that will live, and not be put down? How dare you? Why wasn't that offer made to..."

Kakuzawa gave him the back of his hand, and made it clear that he didn't think the assistant was worth even that.

"Maybe-underling-such an offer is only made to the right people."

Bando shook his head.

"Climb your thumb, Count Chocula!"

Bando was struck as well, and as both left, Oomori again wondered why he hadn't left the Institute after his daughter was euthanized.

24

Mayu luxuriated in the water.

"So peaceful."

The door wobbled, but it did not open, and she breathed easy.

Yuka read a book as she bathed.

"This is heaven."

The reinforced roof still had a few weak spots, but it too was secure.

Kouta agreed with the others.

"I have to admit-I was unsure about this, but just this blissful feeling is-"

The door wobbled again. Kouta stood up.

"I'll go and..."

Mayu shouted.

"Kouta! SIT DOWN-don't let her in."

Yuka frowned.

"He's so thoughtless."

On the other side of the steel bath door, Nyu kept whimpering.

25

Professor Kakuzawa began to push his luck.

"You kidnapped my brother's daughter. You don't want the police involved?"

He touched Yuka's knee.

"Maybe-we should get involved."

Kouta rose.

"We're all leaving. Call the damned police. But don't you ever touch either of them again, you-"

Kakuzawa shoved Kouta's nose into his brain. Death was instantaneous.

"Now ladies, let's-"

Yuka shoved a glass beaker into each of his eyes. Lucy awoke amid agonized tears.

"Nyu?"

"Yes-Yuka?"

Yuka's eyes were those of a dead thing. A thing that knew the truth.

"Use your power-and kill them ALL!"

26

Lucy decided to play a game with the fool.

"I'll do it. Let's make super-babies."

Kakuzawa lit up.

"I-I-you will?"

"On one condition. I want our new rulers to be born right. So you take a hair from each of us and do a DNA workup. Then we get busy."

Kakuzawa could not have been more overheated as he conducted the tests. Just as Lucy wanted.

"No-it can't be!"

When he was found, Arakawa and Kouta could not figure out why the Professor shot himself after testing the DNA of a Diclonius against his own, Human DNA.

27

Kouta was shocked, not an easy thing to do anymore.

"A plague? That causes people to grow horns?"

Arakawa gingerly collected the severed head.

"That's what we were researching, either a cure or a vaccine for. Either the Professor's research gave them to him by accident-or he always had them, but kept them secret while searching-I don't know!"

Kouta shook his head.

"But why would a man so condemn people who have this circumstance to the point of advocating eradication, and yet have this exact same circumstance?"

Arakawa rolled her eyes.

"You don't date much, do you, kid?"

END VOLUME THREE

28

Punching out the doctor, Bando moved to throw the nurse.

"Sorry, Girlie!"

She wouldn't budge.

"Know some sort of martial arts stance?"

He moved to throw her again.

"Damn-I got no time for this."

Bando was not there when the doctor roused.

"Nurse? However did you stand your ground?"

The nurse was crying.

"This past Christmas was my birthday too, and all my jerk friends thought it would be soooo funny to buy me Christmas Cakes, and well, I just started eating them all..."

The nurse punched out the doctor, that the secret of her weight would be kept.

29

Kurama looked at the secretary.

"I killed my daughter, and in turn, caused my wife's suicide."

"Yes, Director. I know you miss them. How's your coffee?"

"It's-how I like it. You always make it well."

"Not always. That one day, when all those guards died, I was late. You needed coffee then, but I got locked downstairs."

"And I have rarely been happier for anything. Now-please go and see to her."

She opened the chamber's door and saw Nana, who smiled despite her pain. The two who loved Kurama best of all had developed a deep bond.

"Kisaragi-San!"

30

He answered her prayers with a few simple words.

"I do remember you. But it's like through a thick fog that chokes me when I look too close. But I remember that I like you, Yuka. That I always have."

"Oh-Kouta-how I've longed to hear those words. What about Nyu?"

"I think I recall her, too-but in that case, it's like a wall made out of brick and steel, with spikes jutting out."

"Can I-help with your memories any?"

"Yes-you can."

"How?"

He smiled a wicked grin.

"Do my other leg."

Yes, he was punched.

31

In deep trouble with the curious Bando, Mayu showed the note he had given.

"See? I'm being threatened and need your aid."

Bando nodded.

"Guess I have no choice."

He altered his position to face where he had been.

"Hey, asshole? How come you're bothering that kid?"

He switched his stance back.

"She knows something about those horned girls!"

Back.

"Well, she says she doesn't!"

Again.

"Well, she's a little liar, isn't she?"

"Where do you get off calling her a liar?"

"You better just watch yourself, pal, or else I'll..."

A worried Mayu whispered.

"Wanta-Chan? We should run now."

32

"THIS IS WRONG!"

The world was changed forever.

"THIS IS WRONG! I won't let you do it!"

The girl, the one she thought a traitor, ran off with the puppy and got to a teacher before Tomoo and his bunch could even speak. That was hardly the last surprise she had that month.

"Kaede-Chan-this is your mother."

"I looked for you. I never stopped."

"Mama!"

Her mother pointed over.

"I would never have found you if it weren't for the police report-and your new stepfather."

Kakuzawa held the child close.

"Come with me to your new home, Kaede."

33

The grave was finished.

"I'm sorry it had to be this way."

She made sure she had everything she needed before she went away from this place forever.

"It wasn't my fault. It was all of theirs inside. Even dead, I can't make them pay enough."

She checked the scribbled address and decided to visit a nearby home.

"I hope you're at peace. I hope somehow maybe-you understand."

Then again, why was she apologizing? It had been him who walked up, unannounced.

"Stupid boy. You brought it on yourself."

After all, it wasn't like he had been anyone important.

34

As they sat in the sun drying off, young Kaede shocked Kouta by crawling around into full view.

"This has been the best day of my life. I wanted you to know that."

There she was. All the things a boy was never supposed to see on a girl without getting hit or yelled at. To his shock, he almost had to sit on his hands to avoid reaching out to touch her.

"I-I have to..."

His motions no longer his own, he kissed her.

The girl who had no problem with him seeing her body slapped him.

"Pervert!"

35

The truth, thought Kouta.

"My cousin is a girl."

She nodded.

"So-are we talking tsundere?"

"Definitely tsundere."

She looked down.

"Early Naru, Main Series Akane...?"

Kouta shrugged.

"I'd say she has a lot of mid-series Katara in her. Motherly, overdoing it."

The girl looked at him.

"Katara from Last Airbender? That's not really anime."

"It's anime-esque."

"That's not even a word."

"Well, that's how she is, when we go to the monster movies."

"Monster? Godzilla or Gamera?"

He saw her kick a turtle away.

"Godzilla-we see Godzilla."

Then, at the festival, while he won Yuka a plush turtle...

36

She felt the mounting despair.

"He lied. His cousin's a girl."

The hurt mounted, even inside her head.

"I told you I liked strange animals."

"You don't have a place here."

"Hurting you isn't like hurting real people!"

The crowd was pushing her.

"Move along, you trash!"

"Is she on drugs?"

She heard the voice from the orphanage.

"Haven't they shown you the hard truth about the world?"

Screams traveled the festival. Kanae ran up to her family.

"Papa-Onii-Chan-there was this horned girl-she had these extra arms-"

Kanae sniffed.

"-which she used to kill herself!"

37

His words shocked her.

"What?"

"You said I'm a liar. What did I lie about?"

"Your cousin. She was a girl."

Kouta looked down.

"I'm sorry I lied. You looked so sad, I didn't know how to tell you the truth."

"But isn't lying to me okay?"

"No-it's always wrong."

"Did Onii-Chan's lie make you kill those people?"

"Kanae!"

"Yes-even though he didn't mean to."

She looked at them.

"You are both good people. But there aren't enough of you to make a difference."

Yuka later heard the news of how the entire train derailed over a cliffside.

38

The police boarded the train car.

"Poor kid saw the whole thing."

"The father?"

"Guess is-he tried to stop it."

"How did they get in?"

"How do they always get in? You think these murders are ever going to be solved?"

"Have you tried talking to the kid?"

"Gee, you think? Too badly shaken up. Blood is still all over the clothes."

"We've informed the family in Kamukura. Placed them under protection."

"Geez. Let's get the kid out of here."

As the shattered child was led out, her words were heard again and again.

"Kouta Onii-Chan-please don't be dead..."

END VOLUME FOUR


	3. Manga Volumes Five and Six

Other Songs 5-3

by Rob Morris

**39**

Yuka was at a remove as the two spoke. Suddenly, she saw an enraged Kouta shove Nyu down. The strange girl was crying, but her tears had no effect on Kouta. Yuka deliberately calmed herself as he walked back over to her.

"Kouta, why would you do that? What about Nyu?"

Kouta looked at her, fought-back tears beginning to emerge.

"Nyu doesn't exis-she doesn't need us anymore. She found her family, her real home. She can go straight there, so far as I'm concerned!"

For the rest of her life, Yuka would wonder what it was Nyu told Kouta.

**40**

"Goodbye Papa..."

After her injection, Nana faded.

"She knew."

Chief Kakuzawa walked in behind Kurama.

"She knew. Did you?"

Kakuzawa held a syringe. The very syringe that Kurama had meant to give Nana.

"You are valuable to me, Kurama-San, but my orders were for her to die. Had you carried them out willingly, this trick would not have been necessary..."

His grief and rage consuming him, Kurama strangled and then snapped Kakuzawa's neck.

"You wanted to be God? Now go and face him."

The only thing left to him would be to release Mariko.

"Your sister will avenge you, Nana."

**41 **

"How can you be so cruel? How can you tell me there's no place in the world for me?"

Bando sneered at Nana.

"Geez, kid. No need to take it personally."

"How is Nana supposed to take it?"

In what was for Bando a rare moment of gentleness, he explained.

"See, we're both born monsters and killers. I'm a monster that looks like the rest of them, so they have a use for me. You don't look like them, so they don't."

"Could you have a use for Nana?"

"What?"

"Make Nana a better monster-then aim me at Lucy!"

**42**

"She's not my friend! She took Nana's real limbs, just the way she took yours."

Bando was not hearing her.

"Oh, and I'm supposed to just believe that? You're a horned girl, she's a horned girl, end of story. You're all in on this together."

Nana marched up and got in his face.

"How would you feel if Nana said that all men with sunglasses were allied together?"

Bando seemed at a loss for words, and so turned around.

"What do you guys think?"

But neither Cyclops, Neo, Agents J and K, Blade nor anyone else could help him out.

**43**

Arakawa set down her gruesome package.

"I'm here to return your son to you."

Kakuzawa stared at the head.

"Why? What seems to be wrong with him?"

Arakawa shrugged.

"What's wrong is he's dead!"

Kakuzawa laughed.

"My son is of an ancient line. He's not dead-merely asleep."

"Asleep? His head's cut off!"

"Nonsense! He's pining for this, his ancient homeland. See-he moved."

"He moved because you kicked the head."

"He lives, I tell you!"

"Listen, you. Your son has traded his horns for a halo. He is no more. He is an Ex-Man!"

"But doesn't he have lovely hornage?"

**44**

Kouta spoke firmly with Nozomi.

"You're only a coward if you fail to pursue your heart's dream. You're only a failure if you never tried."

Yuka seconded this.

"Our home is yours to practice in whenever you want."

With Nyu's thumbs-up, Nozomi began to sing out.

"We had joy, we had fun we had seasons in the sun..."

"Seems like Muskrat Love..."

"Feelings...oohhh whoa whoa Feelings..."

As they endured the well-sung but horrible songs, Yuka and Kouta saw Nyu's face shift and look grim. They decided to take the opportunity and spoke to Lucy.

"Make it look like an accident."

**45**

Easing Nana into the world of money, Mayu bought a simple dish of cream chicken crepes.

"But now I have less of those papers Papa gave me. Suppose he wants them back?"

"It's okay, Nana. He gave them to you to spend-not like we did there, which can be kind of expensive, but in that general way."

"Okay. Mayu?"

"Yes?"

"This is so good. What do they call it?"

Mayu sighed.

"They call it a crepe."

"They call it a crepe? Wow-it doesn't taste bad at all."

After which comment, a nauseous Mayu gave her food to Wanta.

**46**

Arakawa gave up everything.

"I asked around. His name is Kouta."

Chief Kakuzawa nodded.

"Go on."

"He's seen with his cousin Yuka-they have a thing for each other. Well, they've taken in three girls ; An amnesiac who says one word and she's a sex maniac; An abused runaway five years younger than them who they adopted, and a girl with an angelic voice whose family slaps her around if she sings, and he has amnesia too..."

Kakuzawa fired another shot over her.

"My dear, if you don't know who he was, just say so. No need for fiction."

**47**

The angry one would not relent.

"Please stop attacking Nyu!"

Nyu was pushed backwards and in shock, falling through walls and doors.

"Not after what she did!"

Both Kouta and Yuka were batted back as the wronged party kept slapping Nyu.

"You think you can do something like that and just walk away?"

The fury was letting a world of hurt out on Nyu.

"Too much pain! Too much being patient! You had to go that far?"

Outside, Nana and Mayu paused to hear such a ruckus from within.

Kouta pleaded openly.

"Please, Nozomi-she didn't mean to touch you!"

**48**

Nana held back her rage, thinking of her beloved Papa.

"I'm here because of her."

Kouta puzzled.

"Because of Nyu?"

"I can see in your eyes you know-this girl becomes someone else sometimes. Right now, she is so much so that I can't sense her."

Nana was so controlled she was actually scary in her rationality.

"Tell me you've never seen odd things."

His memories aside, Kouta spoke words like an admission.

"Can you help us to watch her?"

"I can-but I won't be the only one."

In one year's time, violent home invaders were turned back successfully.

END VOLUME FIVE

**49**

Feverish, Lucy saw Kouta's face shift. His eyes were not cold, but indifferent. He nodded.

"Does it surprise you? What you did to him that night couldn't be retained. So he made me, just the way you made Nyu."

She muttered some words.

"You-gonna-kill me?"

"Why would I? But for you, I wouldn't exist. When your secret is exposed, the need for me as caretaker goes away."

Lucy nodded.

"Actually-someone named Kaede made me the way Kouta made you."

Warmth appeared on his face.

"Yeah-they don't make it easy to take care of them, do they?"

**50**

"Onii-Chan ate all the ice cream!"

"We don't have any ice cream."

"Papa bought Kanae ice cream and Onii-chan ate it all!"

"That's not how it is."

She looked at him pleadingly.

"Kanae forgives Kouta!"

The almost-grown woman still kept on acting like a small child. It was becoming frustrating.

"I know. I know. Just calm down."

"Kouta stay? Like Kanae?"

He held her tenderly, just as when they were children. Outside her room, a confused Nyu waited.

"She alright?"

Caring for his little sister was exhausting Kouta.

"Yeah, Nyu. Kanae's just been like that since the night our father died."

**51**

At the beach, Yuka made her choice. There was no place for her in Kouta's life.

Later that night, Nozomi saw Kouta come through the door.

"Did you find her?"

The worried Nozomi had come to visit. Kouta sat.

"Got there-too late. Police said-she walked into the water and kept going. Surf gets rough-even if she had changed her mind-before the end. Didn't she know? Didn't she know how I would feel if she went and just disappeared?"

Out of love for this man and her late Sempai, Nozomi would take her place in his life.

**52**

Shirakawa knew that the Chief was not a man who liked bad news.

"I'm afraid Number 35 is of no use to us. A gas leak in her chamber has rendered her brain dead. We suspect that her caretaker, a Miss Saito, spent so much time manipulating Number 35 to her own ends, she neglected this important piece of maintenance."

When she left unscathed, Kakuzawa made a phone call. Not a trace of emotion showed in the the face or the voice of the cold man.

"Doctor Nousou? I believe it's time to step up certain of your special projects."

**53**

"I'm ready, Mama."

Saito secured Mariko in her wheelchair and smiled.

"Soon you'll use your _*arms*_ to make your legs work again."

"Yay! And I get to kill the one who isn't Lucy, right?"

"Didn't Mama promise that?"

Isobe pulled the scientist aside as Mariko was loaded onto the chopper.

"You think you're in the driver's seat, Mama? Well, consider this-if we are going after Number Seven, that means your 'daughter' is likely to meet the man who is like both their father."

Isobe would have an 'accident' on the trip there. This did not save Saito later on.

**54**

Shirakawa was firm with Mariko.

"If that is Number Seven down there, you can kill her-but not Lucy. Should you disobey us in that or any way, the cellphone Isobe is holding can activate any or all of the bombs in your body. Should he not input a deactivation code after a half an hour, they all will explode. Any questions?"

Mariko nodded.

"Just one."

"Go ahead."

Mariko looked at the cellphone.

"Suppose someone else in the area has a cellphone with the same numbers you use?"

On the beach, Bando and Nana saw a fireball hit the water.

**55**

Nana raced out of Maple House, despite Kouta's objections.

"Nana will be back if she can."

Mariko was coming. Nana could sense both her power and her viciousness.

"Must get to the beach. Must get to the beach."

Nana regretted losing her new home so quickly. Mayu was her friend. Yuka was kind. Kouta was nicer. Even her and Nyu learned to get along at last. But this was what had to be done, no questions asked. This was what she had to do. She arrived at her destination and produced her money.

"One first-class plane ticket for Honolulu please."

**56**

Nana was firm, despite the beating she was taking.

"I'm sorry your papa didn't love you. But mine does me."

The nude and embarrassed Nana was thrown around again. Mariko snorted.

"Why should you only have a good Papa? Why shouldn't I have one?"

"Why shouldn't you?"

"Huh?"

Nana tried to gather herself.

"I have a wonderful Papa. He loves me so much, I could share some. Ask him to be your Papa too."

"Really? Big Sis would share with me?"

"Of course, silly!"

The two embraced. Watching, Isobe wondered what would happen to this tender scene when Kurama arrived.

**57**

Kurama had always feared that one day, his pace would be too plodding. That day had come at long last.

"No-you're both precious to me!"

He ran as fast as any man ever had, but the sight before him would not leave his eyes, nor would it ever.

"Please! I'll make it up to you! I swear it!"

But the moment came, with or without his willing it.

"No!"

Mariko's fierce vectors moved out at the same moment Nana's enraged vectors did. Two small heads fell off their bodies, right in front of the man who was their Papa.

**58**

Kurama seemed shaky as he began his tale of Mariko's birth.

"I was recruited to work for the Chief by my colleague..."

Isobe stopped him.

"Kurama-San, that soldier shot you!"

"Nonsense. I was only grazed. I am in complete control of my senses."

He kept on.

"...recruited by my old colleague, Arthur Fonzarelli. With him to persuade me were Doctor Emmett Brown, Rockman, Ultra Seven, and the Muppets."

Isobe rolled his eyes; the unworldly Nana and Mariko listened in wonder. From his sniper's position, Kurama's ally Maxwell Smart shook his head.

"Boy, the Director sure knows a lot of people!"

**59**

The two approached the slumbering Number 3.

"What we're doing here is unconscionable!"

"Kurama, quit your whining. Do you think if Neanderthals could have studied us in this way, that they would have hesitated?"

"That is an argument of circular logic, framed for only your benefit!"

Kakuzawa shrugged.

"Then here's a more practical one. All those with horns must be so tested, so to negate the threat the species poses."

Number 3 smiled at Kurama, then used her vectors before falling back asleep.

Kakuzawa's toupee came off, revealing his secret. Kurama held the toupee as guards surrounded Kakuzawa.

"Wabbit Season!"

**60**

Kurama and Hiromi arrived home from the hospital.

"My husband-forgive my miscarriage."

Kurama held her, then brought her to his small office at home.

"No, wife-forgive me mine."

Inside on a cot was a girl with horns atop her head of pinkish hair.

"Papa! Sanban was waiting for you!"

The little girl once known as Number 3 grabbed Kurama tightly.

"Hiromi, I couldn't leave her there. But we will lose everything for what I've done."

The new Mama grasped her little girl and the bond was lightning-fast.

"But we gain so much in return. We gain our daughter."

END VOLUME SIX


	4. Manga Volume Seven

Other Songs 5-4

**61**

Kurama recalled when Mariko was born, healthy, unlike poor Oomori's daughter. He wondered sometimes if Oomori's encounter with the doomed Number 3 had influenced this. Kurama felt sorry for the girl. He had taken the day off to be with Hiromi, so there was no one there to see her off.

He was still determined to learn the source of the Diclonius' infections, but it had never come to light. Now, though, it would.

"Who are you, and where are my wife and daughter?"

"They're gone. My name is Aiko."

A grimmer voice came from behind.

"And mine is Kaede."

**62**

Battered by harsh truths, the horned girl protested.

"You care for her more than me. That's unfair."

Kurama held the other one close.

"I know I have not been fair to you. But my heart speaks without chains."

"All I dreamed about was being with you. It kept me sane. But now I'm tossed aside, when we could finally be together?"

Kurama did not relent.

"What I failed to do in the past I must do now!"

Her power caused her to float, as Kurama held Mariko tightly against the assault to come.

"Nana doesn't like to hear that, Papa!"

**63**

Mariko shrugged.

"My time is done soon anyway. My own father doesn't want me. Why would I bother hating you for what time I have left?"

Isobe pleaded with the girl not to end her life this way.

"Your life-my life-they all have value! Here-here's the phone codes for the bombs inside your body-"

He gave them to Mariko, and she hurriedly entered them.

"Thank You."

Then she grinned.

"Tell me, how does it feel to be fooled?"

Isobe grinned. They had only five seconds.

"You tell me."

Mariko realized her error too late.

"Wrong codes..."

**64**

Mariko lit up at the tender words.

"Papa always loved me?"

Inexplicably, Kurama had become bulkier and fatter, grossly so.

"Well, I wouldn't want to get into that deep a commitment. We were...fond of the notion of having you one day."

"Huh?"

"Ok. Fond is a bit strong. Ye-ah. We were...not averse to letting you live past the first trimesters, if we absolutely had to. You understand, don't you Meg honey?"

"But my name is Mariko...what?"

The real Kurama returned, the fat one led off by police.

"Sorry, my darling."

"Papa?"

"We somehow became part of a Family Guy cutaway."

**65**

Nana watched as the missiles fell without exploding.

"They didn't have warheads?"

The on-ground Commander nodded.

"They were programmed to distract the target."

Nana shook her head.

"That doesn't make any sense. Missile casings are expensive all by themselves."

The commander shrugged.

"Yes, well, they were needed in this case, for exactly this sort of circumstance."

Nana pressed him.

"You're just making all this up, aren't you?"

"I am not-we can adjust missile yields however we see fit, to match the target-yeah."

Nana decided it was time to have a talk with Lynn Okamoto.

"This chapter feels rushed."

**66**

Kakuzawa launched the false satellite.

"The virus will spread everywhere. The next wave of children will all be of the true race - Diclonius!"

Arakawa shrugged.

"But won't those be sterile Silpelits, leaving only Lucy?"

"My dear-"

"Nope! Your plan can't work, because all you'll be doing is creating girls that might attack three years down the road. Most won't even make it to an age where they would be dangerous."

Kakuzawa smiled.

"My dear Arakawa - haven't you ever heard of a little something we call-fanfiction? Someone is already filling in your plot-holes, even as we speak."

**67**

The satellite rose, seemingly unstoppable.

The captive Lucy was held down, still Nyu.

Mariko, reduced to infancy, held close to Kurama.

Shirakawa ached at the sheer depth of her failure.

In his lair, Kakuzawa was in ecstasy.

In that same lair, Arakawa realized what she had done.

But now another glint from Enoshima Beach rose to challenge the satellite, and the genocidal Darwinist construct went down before releasing its load.

In turn, each one involved and clear-minded realized that one bullet had done the impossible.

"But how?"

The gun was holstered.

"But how?"

The gunman grinned.

"Because I'm freaking BANDO!"

**68**

Lucy sneered.

"So you've disabled me? My power will come right back, then you'll be toast."

Nana batted her back.

"Papa wouldn't quit, and neither will Nana! You like that awful power? Well, Nana feels like she lives in a big glass world, and if Nana loses control, people she loves could die!"

Lucy took several hard blows.

"But you can take it, right, Lucy? So what we have here is a rare opportunity for Nana to let loose..."

Lucy went flying out over the ocean.

"And show you just how powerful I really am!"

Kurama smiled.

"Super speech, Nana."

**69**

Lucy looked around and grinned.

"Just call me a chopping fool."

As soon as Shirakawa had disabled Mariko's bombs, she started. Now father lay in pieces next to his two daughters. Shirakawa herself was chopped in two, surrounded by pieces of dead soldiers.

"Hey. thanks for disabling the bombs. Now say goodbye, bitch!"

Shirakawa forced a grin.

"What we did to Mariko...ever since Number 3...standard policy."

As Lucy realized what the dying scientist meant, Shirakawa smashed a second cell-phone remote.

"That was your-remote, Lucy. Or, in other words-Goodbye, Bitch!"

Lucy uttered one last word before exploding.

"Kouta-"

**70**

Shirakawa cried out.

"Lucy, don't kill them!"

The Diclonius Queen nodded.

"This I've got to hear."

Shirakawa whispered her information. Lucy winced.

"For real?"

"All taken from his files. Now, he doesn't expect to see you. Take vengeance here, or at last take him by surprise. We can keep chatter up to make him think you're nowhere near."

An hour later, Shirakawa was attending the wounded while a boy named Kouta walked up and helped with Nana. Lucy for her part stood over a dead Chief Kakuzawa and a small boy.

"Hey, my name is Lucy-I'm your big sister."

**71**

Kouta and Yuka winced to see the soumen inhaled.

"More, please?"

Nana cautioned.

"Not too fast-you'll get a tummy-ache."

"But it's so good. Can I stay up and watch the picture box?"

Kouta tousled the new resident's hair.

"Okay."

Mayu helped her chair over to the TV, where even the news delighted their unworldly visitor. Nyu was once more a hugging fool. Washing dishes, Kouta was poked in the ribs by Yuka.

"Well, you got another one in."

The little girl smiled broadly.

"The world is full of so many wonderful things!"

And so Mariko moved into Maple House.


	5. Manga Volumes Eight, Nine and Ten

Other Songs 5-5

_**72**_

Kakuzawa looked at the behemoth, and then at his daughter beside him.

"You will be her playmate?"

Anna nodded.

"We are already friends, Father. Besides, I would do anything that would make me of use to you. I would have done this."

The Chief shook his head.

"Service is a wondrous motivator, child. Vengeance is a better one. Isn't it, my Goddess?"

The thing answered with thunder.

***I WISH ONLY TO KILL LUCY, SIR. THAT-AND TO PROTECT**_** 'HIM'.***_

Kakuzawa grinned. It had been ever thus since the night they had found and saved her.

"So will it be-Kanae."

_**73**_

Arakawa was not as strong or vicious as the creep before her.

"Your pleasure slave? I wouldn't last very long!"

The Unknown Man grinned.

"Then, babe, find me someone who could take what I give."

"Well, what about you?"

"Me?"

"Surely you'd last longer than me."

"Heh-I guess I probably would...HEY! Don't try and pull that shit again!"

"Okay-okay, I won't. We'll decide our fates with a coin toss-Heads I Win, Tails You Lose."

Arakawa was not a ruthless sicko like him.

"Stupid bitch-I always win at games of chance."

But she was a lot smarter.

_**74**_

Arakawa held Nyu firmly.

"I'm not this Lucy!"

"Yeah, Right!"

Nyu pleaded.

"I love all I live with. Yuka gave me my first bath, and even if she marries Kouta instead of me, she's my friend!"

"Oh, like you have...a bath?"

"Heh-I got Kouta in trouble with Mayu by jumping in his bath!"

"You're in a more trouble than just...bath?"

"Nana and Mayu are always teasing me about groping in the ba..."

"ENOUGH!"

Two hours later back at Maple House, everyone stood in front of the bathhouse door while Arakawa luxuriated. Yuka shook her head.

"How does this keep happening?"

_**75**_

Nana's mind was on automatic.

"Damn! Didn't bleed as much as I like. Guess another cherry-picker got in before me, huh kid?"

Mayu was not screaming or moving anymore.

"I'll just hang here till something with some boobs shows up. Milk fresh in this place?"

Nana made no declaration, gave no warning. She merely gathered up the four spiked balls, two of them pulled from her own gut. Under her power, they began to spin like a sawblade.

"What are you doing, you little-?"

Nana tripped the monster and sent her weapon up between his legs.

She went slowly.

_**76**_

Lucy smiled.

"Taking the battle inside a shopping mall? Where there's a billion things I can throw at you?"

Bando dodged most of what she grabbed. Suddenly, Lucy's eyes stung.

"Try our new Eau De Unicorn? Or perhaps Unicron, for those feisty moods?"

A floodlight from a new store opening blinded her. Unknown Man was trampled by fans seeking the autograph of a soap opera star.

"Try some free samples?"

Lucy found her mouth stuffed with deli meat, pretzels, sweet and sour pork, and cinnamon pastries. Her stomach lurched.

"Over here, bitch!"

Bando stood arrogantly, holding a bottle of Pepto-Bismol.

_**77**_

Mayu lay in pieces. The secret was safe.

"Nana will kill you!"

Nana and Bando were batted back.

"You're both out of tricks!"

"BITCH! Why the kid?"

"Because I liked her, Bando. Because she deserved to have it done quickly. Neither of you get that, though-with you I'm going to get very creative."

A figure leaped the boardwalk railing. His grip was firm, and her neck quickly snapped.

"Kanae-KANAE!"

Lucy managed to turn her head one last time to see Kouta holding Mayu's upper half, and her last sight was of his eyes regarding her with pure hate.

_**78**_

Mayu held the dear one. It would not be long.

"Where is Lucy?"

Mayu lied.

"You killed her. You did it to save me."

"I thought that I would die alone."

One last tender look was shared.

"But now Nana can die happy. Tell Kouta and Yuka not to yell so much any..."

Bando made a private concession : The little horned girl had guts.

"You going back home, kid?"

Mayu shook her head. She picked up one of Bando's guns, knocked away by the fleeing Lucy.

"No. You're going to show me how to use this to kill Nyu."

_**79**_

Nana was getting very tired of Mayu's denial of plain facts.

"Nana has told you about her and Nyu!"

"Ummm-you're thinking of a different horned girl?"

"Nana has shown you her limbs!"

"You are clumsy. Maybe you just misplaced the originals."

"She killed Bando-San!"

"Even I have to say he could be a jerk. Anyone could have done that."

"She tried to kill you, Mayu-Chan!"

"You know how moody Nyu can be."

"You've read the manga!"

"I didn't like who the mangaka paired Kouta with."

"You've watched the anime!"

"Our dub actors sounded way too similar."

Nana started bawling.

_**80**_

Nousou nodded.

"Despite the many rejects, these four are utterly perfect."

Kakuzawa stared at the clones' bared faces, all copies of one another.

"You rejected both Lucy and Number 35 as the base. Why?"

"Lucy's base pair proved problematic, for the same reasons her mother could not be properly harvested post-mortem. And from the moment we started with her, Number 35's greatest problem always proved control."

He caressed the cheeks of the blue-haired Angela, Brianna, Caitlin and Deborah.

"But these are all clones of the most compliant and well-tempered Diclonius of them all."

Nana was in for a real shock.

_**81**_

Nousou felt a huge measure of relief.

"I don't have to lead the assault on Lucy's hideout?"

Kakuzawa shrugged.

"At first, we thought you, however unreliable, were the only choice to lead this assault, being the only one able to control the clones-and then the simple logical next step occurred to me."

The Agent walked in. Beside her was another Nousou.

"You-you bred a Nousou-2?"

Kakuzawa loved this part.

"Actually-Nousou-5."

As Nousou-4 was killed, a sick feeling of deja vu overtook him. Kakuzawa looked at 5.

"Lead the assault?"

Nousou-5 saw the corpse with his face.

"Glad to!"

_**82**_

Nozomi's test results lay out on the front stoop.

"They're not going for them."

The Agent put away her binoculars. She turned to Nousou.

"Your call as to when we go in."

Nousou thought about Kakuzawa's mood should he retreat.

"Girls-blow down that door."

The clones of Mariko did-and then fell down.

"What's-going on?"

The Agent fired at a retreating figure.

"Number Seven disabled them! Call in the copters-"

The helicopters crashed around them, courtesy of Lucy. Nousou shouted.

"They knew we were-"

As his head was sheared off, the Agent nodded.

"Gee, Ya Think?"

_**83**_

Shot, Kouta fell down.

"I will kill you all!"

But Lucy and Nyu's rage did not rule the day.

"I will kill you all!"

Yuka seized the pins on the grenades the soldiers still had on their belts.

"I will kill you all!"

Mayu jammed a gun butt into every crotch she saw.

"I will kill you all!"

Nana twirled all their weapons into a metal tornado.

"I will kill you all!"

Nozomi added many injured throats to her own.

He meant different things to all of them.

But the home invaders learned : Don't mess with a harem's man.

_**84**_

The clones were protected from Lucy's wrath, but it was a stand-off.

"Girls-abandon me!"

But the clones stood by his side. Alicia, Barbara, Cynthia and the recovered Diana forming a field that Lucy could not penetrate.

"You won't abandon me? Even if I order it."

He smiled as four helicopters stood poised above them, waiting to crush them.

"It isn't the control disks at all! You obey because I am..."

The broken, disheveled Kurama emerged on the scene, and the clones all went straight to him, smiling.

"Papa!"

Nousou decided before dying it was the control disks after all.

_**85**_

Kurama countered Lucy's taunts with shocking words.

"Your little friend? The one I shot?"

Lucy listened with apparent rage.

"Well, she didn't die when I said. But she was so shocky, I told you she died because I thought that was inevitable. But we saved her, with a technique Kakuzawa invented that healed by boosting her metabolism-her aging. She lost her memories, so we renamed her, gave her false memories, and put her to work at the facility."

Lucy felt a cold twinge.

"Doing what?"

Kurama smiled as Lucy was crushed.

"We put her to work-as my secretary!"

_**86**_

Nana could feel him struggling back from the madness.

"I chased away that silly horned girl."

But now there was a choice to be made.

"I know you did. But I'm still here."

Nana had said she wanted this. Now she was scared.

"You'll never leave me, will you, my love?"

Nana, whose mental images with Kurama had been white dresses, now wished she were in diapers again.

"No, my darling-your Hiromi is here to love you."

To bring back her Papa, that night Nana did everything for him that Hiromi would have done, for such was her love.

_**87**_

Arakawa held up the all-important vial.

"I've done it! I changed the world! With this, nations will tremble and sing my praises forevermore!"

As she was exulting in dreams of glory, the ground on the island facility exploded beneath her.

"No!"

Visible vectors, vibrating so fast their energy sizzled the very air, tore out from the underground. The Clone Diclonii were rising to seek vengeance.

"I won't let you have it!"

Arakawa ran off with her precious results, shaking her head as she went.

"Who would have thought creating low-sodium instant ramen would get me in this kind of trouble?"


	6. Manga Volumes Eleven and most of Twelve

Other Songs 5-6

_**88**_

(Note: A follow-up to #86)

"Papa? Nana knows someone who can help us fight Lucy."

"Then let's go to him, Nana-chan. Lead the way-heh-especially if you intend to be my wife."

Nana recalled with horror the previous night, when his condition demanded she act as Hiromi. Hiromi, who she once believed to be her own Mama.

"Only teasing, sweetheart. You just sounded so funny when you said that last time. Nana is my daughter."

She smiled sweetly and let that bad night go forever.

"Nana is your daughter, Papa."

Nana decided that day that, wherever babies came from, they could just stay there.

_**89 **_

The Clone Diclonii let the workers evacuate, fascinated by something they found on one viewscreen.

The supervisor of operations got his people out while the bag-faced genetic constructs, soulless duplicates of the loving but dangerous Mariko, did their odd thing.

"What are they watching, Kenichi?"

"I-was playing a video game, sir."

"I'll discipline you later-maybe. After all, it has distracted them. Hmm-they seem to be learning from it."

"That's the good news, sir."

"What's the bad news?"

"The game I was playing, sir, was-"

The supervisor felt his heart stop at the revelation.

"-Mortal Kombat."

_**90**_

Just as Diana prepared to make real her threat against Arakawa. someone slapped her control disc back into place.

"That really wasn't a good idea. Trust me on that one."

Arakawa was shaking with terror, and found a working sink to clean her glasses.

"Who are you?"

The voice, almost androgynous in its way, responded.

"Someone who knows the problem of releasing these girls from captivity."

Arakawa calmed, and she saw her savior.

"Nousou?"

Nousou pointed to a bruise on Barbara's head.

"Ever tried aiming a nurse's head with a pillowcase?"

The two girls took aim at their faceless 'sisters'.

_**91 **_

"Idiot."

Lucy prepared to execute Kakuzawa and her brother.

"Am I, my dear?"

Guards led in the prisoners taken from Maple House. Declared useless, Nana died first. Lucy knew the others would not be alive long, this way or that.

Six months later, Lucy patted her swollen belly. As foreseen, one by one, the others had been executed. She found she missed Yuka. Then, Kakuzawa screamed.

"MY STATUE! Who is that man?"

Lucy saw the boy who had supposedly been her baby's father playing with Mariko clone Elizabeth.

"That statue is of Kouta's father...the real God of our new race...idiot."

_**92 **_

The admiral saw the brain matter oozing out of the leaking vector attack craft.

"What the hell is that?"

The Saseba operative shrugged.

"That is a military spending boondoggle made by a government desperate to deny having sponsored a madman it once funded on levels that would make the US wince. It contains the cloned brain material extracted from many hundreds of failed clones of a girl who seemed like a monster but really only wanted her Daddy's love."

The admiral started walking back to the Bridge.

"You know, you could have just told me that I lacked the clearance."

_**93**_

The Agent fired her pistol.

"Back off, you little horned witches!"

The Agent fired off spiked iron balls.

"You're not getting that vaccine!"

The Agent launched harpoons meant for landing craft.

"No further will you go!"

The Agent threw rocks and debris. She looked at Arakawa.

"It's a damn shame."

Arakawa took the bait.

"It's a damn shame Human and Diclonius can't live in peace?"

"No".

The Agent shook her head.

"It's a damn shame I never learned how to shoot with any accuracy."

As the pair was torn to pieces, Kouta was treated for a flesh wound and released.

_**94**_

The bag-faced clones surrounded Arakawa and the Agent.

"I'm going to throw you over the side!"

"I'd never make it. But there is a way out."

Arakawa looked at their attackers.

"You have to stop."

Curious, they paused long enough to listen.

"Even if you eliminate that vaccine, your suffering won't end. Your kind is still Human. Even in a world you run, a Diclonius scientist will find a reason to conduct horrid experiments. Is that what you want-Mariko?"

The Agent saw the clones part like the Red Sea.

"You're smart."

"No - I just know how to be smart."

_**95**_

As the vector attack craft's systems overloaded, only Arakawa jumped out in time.

"Here's the vaccine. No one to deliver it to..."

Inspiration struck her.

"It's the only way."

Lucy rose from the grotto that was now the Kakuzawas' final resting place. She sensed the vaccine.

"What do you want?"

Arakawa nodded.

"You don't care about anyone but him. This stuff and my brain are the means by which he won't have to die as your kind rises."

"For Kouta-yes, I will. But just one question."

"What?"

The nude Lucy looked her over.

"Why are you in your underwear?"

_**96**_

"Before our power, Lucy is just a little girl!"

Arakawa rolled her eyes.

"We are talking about Lucy?"

The operative waved his hand.

"This creation is Lucy as a tank or gunship!"

"You're serious? Its vectors can match hers?"

"Match? Its vectors are like the sun compared to Lucy's one H-Bomb."

Arakawa shivered.

"NO! If they're that powerful..."

Arakawa ran about and pulled the hats off of all the officers - revealing their horns.

"Hey, Mister Agent sir? You should take a -"

"Silence, woman-as we prepare to welcome Lucy-"

He grinned.

"Our Lady and Our Queen!"

_**97**_

The operative cried out.

"Lucy will pay!"

Lucy screamed as her body was taken apart, absorbed by the craft. Arakawa gasped.

"What did you do?"

The operative chortled.

"This unit is powered by the brain matter of slain Diclonius-like Lucy."

"SIR! The other vector attack craft are on the move-the broken ones are repairing themselves!"

Above them was a creature with arms, legs and a head made up of the attack crafts. It smashed the fleet with ease. Arakawa let loose one last bit of snark before saying her prayers.

"Stop calling her Lucy-now call her 'Voltron'."

_**98**_

Lucy closed her eyes before Kouta.

"I have no right to ask you this-or anything else."

She pointed to her companion.

"He's my little brother. They killed my mother to make him-but he's innocent..."

Kouta shook his head.

"Then he's Nyu's little brother, too. We must go into hiding-and the control device stays in."

A delighted Lucy gathered her charge. Kouta's thoughts turned grim.

*When you have decided that you love him and want only his safety and happiness-then, and only then, LUCY-will I make you know the pain I felt when you killed Kanae.*

_**99**_

The two sat and bemoaned their fates.

"I want to forgive you. But that would dishonor my family's memory."

Lucy nodded.

"Even if you did, there are too many people after me for us to ever know peace."

Kouta looked at the moon.

"Even if they went away, choosing between you and...life should be like those silly old forties movies."

Lucy grinned.

"You want the moon, Kouta-San? I'll lasso it down for you!"

Improbably, they kissed, until Kouta's eyes snapped open and saw Earth's natural satellite grow ever larger in the sky.

"No! Lucy-PUT IT BACK! PUT IT-"

_**100**_

Lucy saw only one way past her pursuer while keeping her promise to Kouta.

"Kurama - my friend is someone I hurt as badly as I have you with less cause. Please let me get him to the hospital, and I am yours."

Kurama relaxed his stance.

"Go and get your friend. But like before, Nana must disable your vectors."

She turned, and on an instinct he could not control, Kurama shot her dead. He felt his gun-arm tear loose from his body. He heard Nana's tearful voice as she took their wounded friend away.

"PAPAS SHOULD KEEP THEIR PROMISES!"

_**101**_

Yuka saw the explosion from the lighthouse, as Lucy raged. Nana explained everything to her.

"We have to make her stop being Lucy, and bring out our friend Nyu."

Nana shook her head.

"How can we do that?"

Mayu spotted someone in the distance.

"That woman is a celebrity from America-I'll bet she can help us."

Yuka approached the woman, explaining the bizarre situation.

"I'll do what I can, darlin-but how can little ole me be of help?"

Yuka sighed at the Country and Western idol.

"Ms. Parton - you may be the only one who can help!"

_**102**_

The heads of the departments of the Self-Defense Forces contemplated.

"Our own standard forces are helpless."

"Saseba's Vector-based craft have shut down in fear of Lucy."

"The Americans can offer no guarantee an atomic weapon would strike true."

"It seems that there will never be further contact with Chief Kakuzawa."

The Prime Minister raised a hand of calming.

"The steps we took to contain and keep silent the Diclonius threat have all backfired in the worst ways imaginable. Help must be taken where it is offered."

"Do you mean..."

"Yes. Tell Umbrella Corporation we will test their virus against Lucy."

_**103**_

As she turned to aid Kouta, Kaede realized it was far from being enough.

"I will heal them all!"

On the approach, the others she now counted as friends felt her power as well.

Nozomi.

"I can sing again!"

Mayu.

_*I still know what my stepfather did-but it's like it happened to someone else*_

Nana.

"Nana can control her arms, legs-and her other arms without breaking a sweat."

Even Kurama.

"Looking at my life from outside, I see my mistakes-and I see what I must now correct."

Finally, Yuka.

"Wow-you mean I hit him THAT often?"

_**104**_

All looked at what had been Lucy. Yuka gasped.

"Is that-her?"

Kouta held her while her small sobs carried.

"Yes-she gave all she was to heal me."

Mayu looked at the melted flesh, and what was pulled from it.

"I don't even have to warn Wanta off it. How did this happen?"

Nana looked the mess over.

"She's gone entirely, this time. There's no trace of Lucy or Nyu in the - -"

The soldiers arrived, shouting as always.

"Where Is Lucy?"

Yuka shook her head.

"No Lucy here. Just our family-"

Yuka held up the regenerated, non-horned infant.

"Including our daughter Nyuu."

_**105**_

Kouta looked scornfully at the lead agent.

"Surrender."

The Saseba operative laughed, and his soldiers with him.

"Why should we surrender, boy?"

Kouta shrugged.

"You just should."

"But we have guns."

"Yes, you do."

"We have logistics."

"Yes, you do."

"We have manpower!"

"Yes, you do."

"And what do you have? A melted Lucy?"

Kouta shook his head.

"No. We have the history of this manga, as regards the fates of any unnamed soldiers."

The operative tried like hell to put together a comeback against Kouta's logical remark. But as he did this, he noted his soldiers deserting en masse.

_**106**_

There was no pulling away from this.

"I made a promise."

He thought of all the ups and downs of knowing Nyu-and Lucy.

In his hand was an object of small yet huge weight.

"Kanae-Chan, Father-is this how to best honor your memory?"

It was Yuka snapped him back.

"I don't like where this has ended up, but I love you both, and Kouta-you must keep your promise."

He reached out and took the trembling hand of Nyu. He seized the object in his own hand-and placed it on her finger.

AND THEN I MARRIED NYU

Author's Note : Because I owed them that last one. To paraphrase 'Mamma Mia', 'Say Nyu, Nyu, Nyu, Nyu, Nyu, Nyu!'

Since a volume's worth of events occurs in the final manga chapter, it will get its own separate section for these drabbles.


	7. The Concluding Chapter 26 AU's

Other Songs 5-7

_**107A**_

The day had come for Kouta. The day at last, of his release.

Through the bars, Kouta stared at his guard.

"Where is Nozomi?"

He knew all the others were long dead. The horned woman shrugged.

"Our scientists are studying her remains to reproduce her voice...sorry. None of you deserved this. Your species did in general, but some few of us know that you yourselves were kind."

As Kouta was left alone one final time, he stared out at the vast crowds of Diclonius. The devil who had killed their goddess-queen laughed out loud, and they would mark this day.

_**107B**_

"Do you see, Kouta-San, Nana-chan? He came back!"

The pair tried not to look sad.

"That's great, Mayu-chan. I'm so happy for you."

"Nana-can't wait to tell her Papa-it's a real miracle."

Mayu blushed.

"Oh-don't use that kind of language! My family is here!"

Kouta gulped.

"I got some water in my ears, Mayu-chan. Tell me what he just said?"

Mayu jumped for joy.

"He wants us to be married! Will Kouta-San stand as my father?"

Yuka showed and gently guided Mayu to the ambulance.

Though Bando never really returned, somehow, that beach was cleaned every night.

_**107C**_

Nana smiled.

"Is all of Papa's work done?"

Kurama nodded.

"Whatever isn't done-will simply never be. It's time I accepted that. Right, darling?"

Hiromi mussed both their hair.

"I never thought I'd hear you say those words, Husband. Our new daughter is a good influence on you."

Mariko came running up. Kaede was in hot pursuit.

"You little...I'll cut your arms off, this time!"

Kurama stopped his soaking wet former nemesis, and his child.

"What did you do?"

"Errr...caught her in a cloudburst."

While Kurama settled this, Nana smiled as she saw Mayu bring fresh flowers to her grave.

_**107D**_

The young woman sniffed.

"So she's really gone?"

Kouta nodded.

"No matter how much I hated what she did, I loved her and had to grant her peace."

"And now you're alone here?"

Kouta saw anew how clean the place was. He seemed to have all the time in the world to keep it that way.

"Yuka left, saying she would never be first in my heart. Mayu moved in with Nana and her Papa, and Nozomi studies abroad now."

"I never even told her I was alive. Kouta-San, may I rent her room?"

"I'd like that a lot, Aiko."

_**107E**_

At Nana's direction, they used their powers together. Her whole family watched from the beach as the chunks of the island were raised up and fused together.

"I'll miss her-a lot.", said Mayu.

"I wonder if we'll ever get to visit?", said Yuka.

"Can they have children?", asked Nozomi.

"Virtually no males, and all, so far as we can tell, Silpelits-sterile.", said a stone-faced Kurama, who would miss his little girl as he never had anyone else.

"There, they will be free-and there, they will all be normal-do you see them, Nyu?", Kouta asked and prayed.

_**107F**_

Nana was in great pain. Kurama held her hand throughout the ordeal.

"There are other ways."

"Not for Nana! Nana is brave, like Nyu, and Kouta-San. Nana endures, like Mayu-chan. Nana keeps her dream, like Nozomi-chan. Ohhhhh-it hurts, Kurama-Dono!"

Since it was a trade up from the socially awkward 'Papa', Kurama no longer objected.

"Hang on-it is almost done."

"Nana is-thinking of Hiromi-chan, so fierce in her objective. Nana is thinking of Mariko-chan...I...DON'T YOU TOUCH ME EVER AGAIN, YOU OLD STINKING PERVERT!"

Kurama staggered into the hospital lobby.

"It's a boy. Nana is being strong-like Yuka."

_**107G**_

The two girls weeped copiously. Little Nyuu nodded.

"My Papa died when I was very young."

"We will not see him again for a long time."

Yuka finally spoke.

"I know you both loved him like I did. I miss him so much. But our family still awaits your return. Will you come back with us? Even old Wanta is still around!"

The girls looked at each other.

"Our special friend is gone, and sadly, nothing can change that."

The second one smiled.

"But Yuka-chan is also our friend."

In the name of Kouta's love, a family resumed that day.

_**107H**_

Kurama stood by the graveside, and sought to put an end to this nonsense.

"You're being silly. Babies together? Nana is my daughter!"

Hurt and resentment seemed to spread across the girl's face. Then, it passed. Her eyes still seemed different, though.

"Papa is right, as always. Papa-is Lucy really gone forever?"

Kurama nodded.

"Once, I might have questioned this. But she died, and her body is gone. Lucy will never back."

"What about her ghost?"

"Nana, there are no such things as ghosts."

Nana grinned wickedly-though Nana was not there at all.

"Sure of that, are you?"

_**107I**_

The impatient bride-to-be had waited years.

"First, he said : Wait for the war to be done. Then, it was, wait till the law allows it. Then-I don't even remember what he said to wait for then!"

As her three best friends tried to calm her, two men she knew were in pursuit of a runaway groom. Finally, they found the scared little rabbit.

"No, Please! I don't wanna go! She's out of her mind, and-and I DON'T WANNA GET MARRIED!"

Kouta and Kurama raised up the stuttering wreck of a man.

"Let's not keep Mayu-chan waiting, Bando-San."

_**107J**_

It wasn't his fault, he told himself. Yuka had stepped too close to the dying, hate-filled entity that Lucy and Nyu left behind. Nana tried to stop her, and Nozomi couldn't deal with the horror.

He had been left alone-almost. Wanta nosed him.

"Why don't you hate me like everyone else, Wanta?"

"Not everyone, Kouta-San."

Mayu sat beside him.

"You never hurt me. You have been a very good Papa."

Her mistake had been to never leave his side. His mistake was obvious to anyone who saw her enlarged stomach.

"A good one, maybe. Just not a strong one."

_**107K**_

Kouta and Yuka had understood immediately.

"Marry a video-rack if you want-just be happy."

"This is and will always be your house."

They were recent graduates and recent parents. Her Onee-Chans adored little Nyuu and her healthy lungs, but needed some sleep-among other things.

"Nana has unpacked our things."

Mayu had not cut her hair, despite some school-mates suggesting just that. A patch of blue color, to match Nana's, was all she wanted.

"Sit down and relax. Enjoy our new apartment."

Nana blushed.

"But-what do we now?"

Mayu kissed her, then smiled.

"We-live happily ever after."

_**107L**_

They welcomed her home.

"How's my military escort?"

The snipers were all too obvious.

Yuka sniffed.

"You deserve better than this! When the missiles were launched, you saved the whole..."

Kaede shushed her.

"My ledger's in the red, Yuka-including the life I couldn't save."

The military kept watching Kaede, but in time, it was out of gratitude, not caution. She kept recalling the life she couldn't save.

She kept to herself, waiting in the woods once each year, till she saw them.

"We've been waiting for you."

It was a young boy and his little sister. Both were smiling.

_**107M**_

The Agent emerged from the darkness, and the revived Anna Kakuzawa was startled.

"How did you get here?"

The well-trained woman assessed her situation.

"I was about to be pounced on by the Diclonius when the ground gave way. Water later swept me all the way down here."

She pointed to a headless body.

"Is that Chief Kakuzawa? He was part of my mission."

Anna nodded.

"Lucy killed him-but she's probably dead now. It's over."

The Agent seized Anna from behind and broke her neck.

"No-now it's over-for my mission was to eliminate all of the Kakuzawas."

_**107N**_

Nozomi's father embraced his girl.

"I could not have been more wrong. The will and the strength I tried to beat out of you exists in greater measure than I could have imagined."

Kouta raised a glass.

"To our friend Nozomi-the bravest girl I know."

Yuka smiled.

"My Kohai can adapt to any disappointment."

Nana pointed to the small piano they had purchased from a tavern ruined by Lucy's last rage.

"Play for us, Nozomi-Chan."

Mayu tuned the piano while Nozomi explained what piece she would play. She was patient with them-they didn't all fully understand sign language.

_**107O**_

Little Nyuu stirred.

"Papa, we should get going. Mama will be mad-Nyuu hates that."

His daughter's hand was bandaged. Yuka had never been right since falling from the ruined lighthouse.

"Papa knows where my friend is now. We'll go to her, and she will be your new Mama."

"Nyuu would like that, Papa. "

He was a man, and could deal with her violence. But since Mayu had finally left in disgust, his little one had suffered ever more. Over the cliffside they went, and as they fell, Kouta saw Nyu.

"I have been waiting for my special friend..."

_**107P**_

They thought Lucy couldn't suffer any more. They were wrong.

"It's a travesty-wasn't what the Kakuzawas did to her mother enough?"

No one disagreed with Kouta.

"They say she was a public figure-but no one knew her till the war started."

Yuka stopped and wept. Mayu was fuming.

"Nozomi-Chan should have refused to be a part of that horror!"

Nana finally called a halt.

"Nyu-chan tried her best to be good. Nana thinks we should go and make sure they got her story right."

With that, the family of Maple House resigned themselves to seeing _**"Lucy-The Musical!"**_

_**107Q**_

Yuka wandered outside and was struck by lightning.

Yuka walked into the kitchen and the chopper in Nana's hands flew wild and cut her head off.

Yuka wandered into a den of Diclonius who their late queen had ordered to destroy her painfully-and they did.

Yuka got on the wrong side of Naru Narusegawa.

Yuka annoyed Light Yagami.

Yuka was transported to the DC Universe, and each attempt to get out only sent her to the next Crisis event.

Yuka brushed herself off, and looked at the reality we know.

"Do whatever you like-Okamoto-San's canon ending still stands!"

_**107R**_

"But now, Papa and I will be together always-as soon as he gets back."

Kurama stood behind her at the graveside.

"It's only for awhile. Certain people must be attended to."

"But I'm not sad. My heart is filled with joy. Papa will come back, and then we can make babies together!"

Kurama stood in silence for a full minute before responding.

"You have some real issues, Mariko."

The girl sneered.

"Screw You! I'm eight, and spent most of my life in a freaking isolation tank manipulated by Miss Idiot Mad Scientist 2005!"

Nana spun wildly in her grave.

_**107S**_

Kurama nodded at Bando.

"You too, huh?"

Bando groaned.

"Wasn't the wisest choice we ever made."

Kurama did some calculations and came up with some numbers he didn't like at all.

"Perhaps-they will go easy on us?"

Bando laughed.

"Only grade-school teachers get off on this rap. We're gonna fry."

As they talked in their cell, one guard asked the other a question.

"Hey-what are those two in for?"

The other guard sneered.

"Pedophiles. The big guy was dating a girl whose only fourteen, and the other one tried to 'make babies' with a girl who's barely eight!"

_**107T**_

Yuka's mother asked Nana and Mayu to leave the room while she talked with Kouta and Yuka.

"So you see, despite all our efforts, my sister and I could never have kids of our own. You two and Kanae were adopted from the same orphanage Nyu came from. You are not related by blood at all."

"Yuka-chan?"

She was crying.

"I always liked our being connected from the very start."

"We were-just not by blood. I think there's been enough-Mayu-chan?"

Mayu and Nana came running out.

"Postings on the Elfen Lied message boards just dropped by thirty percent!"

_**107U**_

The new military commander saw Kouta kill Nyu.

"She's gone. Pull out."

His aide shrugged.

"Shouldn't we collect and destroy Lucy's remains? Didn't those kids harbor the world's most wanted fugitive? Didn't we engage in a probably illegal massive raid on a little place that used to be a restaurant? Isn't Japan apt to become a pariah for sponsoring Kakuzawa? Won't the other Diclonius go wild now that they're leaderless? Don't we have wrecked ordnance spread all over Kanto? Shouldn't we be attending to the presumably many dead and wounded?"

The commander pointed.

"Kezugawa, I am officially suspending your disbelief!"

_**107V**_

Bando sighed.

"Great-here come the idiots who rebuilt me, after I got sliced up."

Yuka's mother pointed.

"I want Nana out of here!"

Kouta read from the newspaper.

"It says here that the world was devastated by the Diclonius-except for Kanagawa Prefecture."

A little girl tugged at Yuka's apron.

"Mama? When does Nyuu get born?"

Kurama stood frozen by indecision.

"Nana is my...my..."

Nozomi tried to sing, but couldn't remember if she could or not.

Up on the hilltop, the reincarnated Lucy and Kaede watched.

"Should we help them?"

"We can't-Maple House is overgrown with dangling plotlines!"

_**107W**_

The reader saw Nyuu turn, Kouta weeping, and the two little girls from another angle.

"You can't even see their faces in full! Are they Human, Diclonius, what?"

He read and re-read the concluding chapter. He'd found the manga in the abandoned house of a guy who owed him money, and read all the way through. Apparently, the weasel had been such a fan, he'd printed up a 'scanlation' and bound it. The reader was frustrated.

"Hell of a way to end a story, just cutting off like that."

Tony Soprano shrugged and left to go eat with his family.

_**107X**_

"What's wrong, Mayu-chan?"

"I can't seem to find out where Wanta is."

Outside, the small dog wandered past Nana and Kurama, a poster for Aiko Takada's mother. Later, he passed by Mayu's reunion with Bando, but kept going. Leaving a shop with a package in his mouth, he headed for home and his rebuilt doghouse, now larger with a flattened top he could actually climb up on. He opened the package, donned the cap and goggles inside, and stood atop his doghouse.

_*You won't get away this time, Red Baron!*_

Yuka checked outside for some noise. The doghouse was gone.

_**107Y**_

Yuka was at least somewhat skeptical. She glanced again at the two girls in the living room.

"You're trying to tell me that those two girls are both Lucy and Nyu come back to life?"

"Mama, they're my friends and they're Papa's old friends, too!"

Kouta tried his best.

"Yuka, there were so many remarkable..."

"Oh, stay here, you two-I'll sniff out if a con artist sent them."

In the living room, Yuka yelped and cried out. She came back, covering her exposed breasts with her hands as Kouta and their daughter tried not to laugh.

"Yeah-it's Nyu."

_**107Z**_

The end of another Kamakura summer festival had arrived. Everyone knew everyone else, but there was always that one person.

"Hey, who was she?"

"Who was who? There's a lot of people out tonight."

"That girl walking with young Kouta."

"I know a lot of Koutas."

"Ahhh...the family was originally from Hokkaido. Takes care of his sister."

"Oh, him. Yeah. That was his wife, Kaede."

"Did you-did you notice something odd about her?"

The bored older man cut off the conversation.

"Well, let's see. Straight, dark hair, brown eyes. Nope. Just an ordinary girl, leading an ordinary, happy life."

(Thanks to all who have read this project. Hopefully, that was a good place to leave it. If I ever do an 'Other Songs 6', it'll just be for random ideas for little AU's.)


End file.
